Mission Network News - Asia

Pakistan (MNN) — Several Christians in eastern Pakistan remain under police protection today following a weekend mob attack.

FMI’s Nehemiah says, “This Christian man, Aziz, had a very small shoe factory, and there were Muslims in the same area who didn’t like it. So, they accused this person [of blasphemy], and they become a mob, and they wanted to kill him; they’re trying to stone him to death.”

Piles of shoes and other material burn outside the Christian shop.
(Photo courtesy of FMI)

The mob looted and burned the shoe shop, and it torched the Christian man’s home. The angry mob also attacked the Christian man’s elderly father, accusing him of burning pages of the Quran.

“74-year-old Nazir was transported to the hospital and admitted [into] the intensive care unit [where] he’s being arrested by the police and handcuffed [to] a hospital bed,” Nehemiah says.

In Muslim-majority Pakistan, mobs often use the country’s blasphemy laws as an excuse to attack Christian communities. Last August, radical Muslims burned more than 200 homes and two dozen churches after accusing believers of desecrating the Quran.

Nehemiah says the mob’s intent was crystal clear on Saturday. “This mob wanted to lynch the Christian men. They were armed with sticks and stones; they gathered in front of this house and attempted to break into it,” he says.

“This is a very easy target for any Muslim – to blame Christians and accuse them of blasphemy to set up some private gains.”

Ask the Lord to give FMI church planters safety and wisdom as they share the hope of Christ throughout Pakistan. “You don’t know where you will be attacked or be accused of blasphemy, or a mob will come in and try to kill you,” Nehemiah says, speaking from personal experience.

Connect with FMI here to learn how you can support church planters in Pakistan.

Header and story images courtesy of FMI.

Thailand (MNN) — Although the gospel of Christ will never change, Christians have to approach different cultures in unique ways. 

Candace Mackie with TWR Motion, a division of Trans World Radio, says, “We believe people of all cultures deserve to hear about Jesus in a way they understand and so, we make animated content that’s used on social media to engage with people who are spiritually seeking.” 

Kayla Schlipf, art director for Journey to Hope, illustrating a scene from the episode about the fall of humankind. (Image and caption courtesy of TWR Motion)

Trans World Radio is all about reaching the last, those forgotten and cut off from the gospel. Today, TWR Motion is partnering with a ministry in Thailand, this time to reach Buddhists. 

“We started to work with them to understand Thai people in particular, but also just broadly trying to understand Buddhism,” Mackie says. 

There’s been a steep learning curve. In recent years, TWR Motion created a video series called “Share the Story” presenting the gospel to Muslims. That was an easier process than this new series has been. 

“Islam is a little bit closer to what we’re used to. There’s a lot of bridges to the gospel with Old Testament prophets. Sacrifice is very much something that they understand,” Mackie says. “But for Buddhist people, it’s been really tricky to understand their worldview, because it’s just so different than ours.”

For example, Mackie says animism and spirit worship are common among the Thai people.

Illustration from Journey to Hope, an animated Bible story to share the gospel with people with a Buddhist worldview. Adam and Eve in the garden. (Image and caption courtesy of TWR Motion)

“It’s a very different context. We’ve kind of taken a deep dive into this, to produce 20 episodes of Bible stories,” Mackie says. 

The “Journey to Hope” series should be completed in 2025. (Learn more about it here.) Between now and then, Mackie says there are ways you can help bring it to the finish line.

“I would definitely ask for prayer for us as we develop this series. For the Lord to work out some of the challenges that we have in our workflow.”

If you are a church planter who could use “Journey to Hope” in a language other than Thai, reach out to TWR Motion. They have worked with dozens of other teams to translate their video resources into new languages to spread the gospel.  

Header photo of a church planter in Thailand talking with a local man in a village courtesy of TWR Motion.

FSU (MNN) — Have you ever started a story with, “This one time at summer camp…”?

For kids, summer camp is filled with making memories and fun with friends old and new! Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) is kicking off its annual summer day camps across the Former Soviet Union (FSU), including in war-torn areas.

Eric Mock with SGA says, “The kids wait year-round for the opportunity to have these summer camps where they can go away from the noise and the distraction and even the fears of this world and find peace, joy, and love through the ministry of local believers to them and the hope that we have in the Gospel.”

Each summer camp is different. “One is a camp in the local area, it could be a facility, or it could be out in the woods. It kind of depends on the circumstances. For the kids in Ukraine, it may even be in a bomb shelter.”

Meanwhile, it’s not just the kids who are impacted.

“There’s parents who show up because they don’t know what to think of the local Church,” Mock says. “[So] they have these day camps that parents stand nearby, and what’s amazing is a lot of these parents are hearing the Gospel for the first time.”

Kids at SGA’s summer camp. (Photo courtesy of SGA)

Mock says after a summer camp is over, often they’ll see parents and their kids go to church the next week for the first time! Just $41 provides the scholarship for one kid to attend an SGA summer camp.

“SGA hopes this year to assist as many as 77,000 kids across 13 countries to go to a summer retreat, and we hope the number is even better! As much assistance as comes in, we’re able to send more and more kids. There’s really almost no limit.”

One gift today can change a kid’s life with the Gospel. Donate to SGA summer camps!

Pray for children in Slavic nations attending summer camp to find joy through faith in Jesus Christ. Ask God to draw entire families to His truth! Pray also for wisdom for the camp workers as they present God’s Word.

Header photo courtesy of SGA’s summer camp for kids. (Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association)

India (MNN) — If we don’t take the Gospel, who will? 3 billion people today have no way to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. This Sunday is the International Day for the Unreached, and we’re praying for more Christians to take the Gospel to unreached people.

You never know what kind of spiritual legacy reaching just one people group can have.

John Pudaite, President of Bibles For The World, says his grandfather’s unreached Hmar tribe in northeast India had a reputation as fearsome headhunters.

“This would be back at the turn of the 20th century. [They] had a reputation of being one of the most savage groups of headhunters in the British Empire. We had developed this reputation because as the British had advanced across India converting a lot of the land into tea plantations, our tribe had revolted against this.

“In one attack on a tea garden, they had chopped off the heads of over 500 tea garden workers in one night, as well as kidnapping the daughter of the tea garden manager.”

Pudaite says, “We see it now, in retrospect, as divine providence that this reputation spread back all the way to the UK, because it resulted in a number of missionaries hearing the call of God to come to India and to reach out to the savage group of headhunters and the neighboring tribes.”

One young missionary, Watkin Roberts, mailed the Gospel of John to the Hmar tribe in 1910, and the village chief invited him to explain it. Roberts defied British authorities’ no-contact ban with the dangerous tribe and he went.

Rochunga Pudaite and his wife, Lalrimawii. (Photo courtesy of Bibles For The World)

Pudaite says, “He snuck up through the hills and walked more than a week on foot to reach my grandfather’s village. In a short visit there, just five days, he was able to share the Gospel message…. My grandfather who was only probably 14 or 15 years old at the time – he was probably a young headhunter in training – he gave his heart to Christ!”

Pudaite’s father, Rochunga “Ro” Pudaite, eventually founded Bibles For The World — a ministry that has provided 100 million Bibles to people around the world, including the unreached.

This IDU Sunday, pray for unreached people groups to know Jesus!

Maybe, like Roberts, God is calling you to go?

“It was not an easy decision for him,” Pudaite says. “But [Roberts chose] to follow in obedience to that calling to bring the Gospel to our people.”

You can read the full story of Bibles For The World’s history here.

Header a representative photo of a remote village in India. (Photo courtesy of Deepak Srinivasan/Unsplash)

Thailand (MNN) — An exciting gospel video project will soon be reaching the Buddhist world with the hope of Christ! It comes from TWR Motion, a division of Trans World Radio that tells God’s story through animated videos. 

Candace Mackie with TWR Motion says they often partner with church-planters who use social media to reach spiritual seekers. “We’ll work with them to develop original videos that they can use that reach their culture with the gospel in their language.” 

A church planter in Thailand talks with a local man in a village. (Image and caption courtesy of TWR Motion)

After creating a video series for the Muslim world, TWR Motion has now partnered with a church-planting ministry in Thailand. The new 20-video series will cover creation, the fall of man, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, plus many other stories in between — all of them geared to reach into the unique worldview of Buddhists. 

“The whole series theme, we’re trying to show that Jesus is our ultimate hope. So we’re trying to present Jesus as the person who can bring hope to their lives and that they can know for themselves,” Mackie says.

Mackie says the trickiest part has been learning to understand the worldview of Buddhists. Their partners have been essential in developing the content.

“They [ministry partners in Thailand] actually worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators as well. So the base of the scripts came from Wycliffe,” Mackie says. “We made some adjustments and spoke into it at different points to help [with] thinking about it from a video perspective. But [we] really trusted them with the content that needed to be in there.” 

Illustration from Journey to Hope, an animated Bible story to share the gospel with people with a Buddhist worldview. Adam and Eve eating the fruit. (Image and caption courtesy of TWR Motion)

The series Journey to Hope should release in the Thai language in 2025. Between now and then, would you pray for and support the team? 

“There’s a lot that goes into the artwork and the way that we tell the stories. [Pray] for wisdom, and clarity, and energy, stamina,” Mackie says. 

This video series is meant to reach beyond just Thai communities. It’s an ongoing project that you can support. (Learn more about “The Crew” behind TWR Motion here.)

“The goal — and what we’ve done with our other series — is that any church-planting team who would like to use this can come to us and we’ll work with them to translate it and produce it in their language so that they can use it in their contexts,” Mackie says. 

If you could use Journey to Hope to reach Buddhists in another culture or language than Thai, reach out to TWR Motion here. 

Header photo: Kayla Schlipf, art director for “Journey to Hope,” illustrating a scene from the episode about the fall of humankind. Photo and caption courtesy of TWR Motion. 

Afghanistan (MNN) — What started as gentle rainfall on Friday in northern Afghanistan suddenly turned to flash floods that killed at least 300 people. Muddy rapids swept away entire houses were in 18 districts.

Most of the victims were women and children. Even surviving families lost their land and livestock, which meant their livelihood.

Now, many villages in the mountainous region desperately need aid.

(Photo courtesy of Global Catalytic Ministries)

Didi* with Global Catalytic Ministries (GCM) says, “The challenge is with the Taliban regime; they’re not bringing resources and rescue. Actually, it’s a really challenging area for reaching, period.”

The flooding obliterated some roads. One farmer trying to reach his family couldn’t find the road back to his village. His wife and three of his six children died in the floods; one son is still missing.

Although aid is slow coming, Afghan Christians in connection with GCM are mobilizing to the area with relief supplies.

Didi explains, “We don’t identify ourselves on the ground as GCM, but we have Afghan relationships with believers on the ground that we work with. So we have a few people that we know directly that they’re sending.”

Believers in Afghanistan still have to be careful in navigating situations that could lead to spiritual conversations.

“The first generation of believers, so many of them were in the direct line of fire and left the country,” says Didi. “So it’s a new day trying to reengage in the nation and seeing the Kingdom of God go forth.”

Ministry in Afghanistan today often looks like living out the Gospel and meeting the needs of Muslim neighbors, especially in light of natural disasters. The flash floods over the weekend are just the latest in a series of disasters to hit Afghanistan’s impoverished remote villages.

Didi says, “A huge part is just literally being the hands and feet of Jesus and creating relational equity through bringing care and assistance to this.

“From that point, after the relational bridges are formed and they’re past the immediate crisis, then you have opportunity to share the Good News: What’s the hope? Why did they come versus others that didn’t come?”

Pray for grieving Afghan families to ultimately know the comfort of Jesus Christ.

*Psuedonym for security purposes.

Header photo courtesy of Farid Ershad/Unsplash.

India (MNN) — The U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended that India be designated as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). Its 2024 Annual Report released May 1, 2024 recommends adding five new countries to the 17 already on the CPC list. 

But the pushback from India against this designation has been swift and sharp. A spokesperson for the nation’s Ministry of External Affairs referred to the report as “propaganda,” and called USCIRF “a biased organization with a political agenda.” 

So what is going on? Tim Landis with FARMS International says there has been a “ramping up of new anti-conversion laws.” 

India’s population is nearly 80% Hindu, 14% Muslim and 2% Christian. (Source: CIA Factbook) Photo courtesy of Ron Hansen/Unsplash.

Twelve states in India criminalize changing your religion, under certain circumstances. There are also concerns that India’s current government will make all of India a nationalist Hindu state. We’ll see who is in office after the general election results come in June. (More on the ongoing election here.)

For now, incidents of mob violence against Christians are on the rise, and FARMS is feeling it. One of their local partners had to move his family due to threats in their home area. 

“Church, believers, and families were persecuted, false accusations of saying that the businesses were giving people loans and beneficiaries loans to convert to Christianity, which is not the truth. It’s not even how FARMS operates,” Landis says. 

FARMS offers interest-free loans to Christians to help them work their way out of poverty. It doesn’t touch on conversion. Until recently, their work in India has not been under much threat.

“[Our partner] has had very good connections within the government, but that is starting to deteriorate, as the government kind of keeps pressing on these [anti-conversion] laws,” Landis says. 

Pray against the fear Christians are facing of losing their crops, livelihoods or lives to community attacks spurred on by anti-conversion laws.

Learn more here about how you can come alongside Christians around the world with FARMS International.

Header image is a representative stock photo of India courtesy of Akshat Vats/Unsplash.

India (MNN) — They’re halfway there. Over two weeks ago, India kicked off national elections in a seven-phase voting process that will continue till June 1. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is running for a third, final term and is currently the front-runner. His Bharatiya Janata Party also wants to expand its majority in the lower parliament house, the Lok Sabha.

Phase three of voting began yesterday. Surging heat waves have made polling difficult.

Regan Miller with Mission India explains, “With 1.4 billion people in India, that’s a lot of people to get [through] the voting system.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

What happens politically in India and the resulting policies greatly impact Christian ministry — and there is much ministry work to do.

India is the largest unreached nation in the world. Roughly 95% of the population is unreached, meaning they have never heard the Gospel.

Miller says, “We can pray over the election season for wisdom for the voters. Right now, for the Christians, they would just appreciate prayers for wisdom and that the Holy Spirit would work through the leadership in India.”

Mission India has a timely resource to encourage your prayers.

“If people would like a tangible way to learn how to pray in a meaningful way for India and for their own lives, too, we are offering a 10-day Pentecost Prayer Guide that launches May 9. Pentecost is the day that we recognize the sending of the Holy Spirit in Scripture, so we’re going to be praying into that!”

Get Mission India’s Pentecost Prayer Guide here!

“We’ll walk you through one way each day that God responds to prayer and fasting and Scripture, and how you can pray into that – for India and your own life to,” says Miller.

Click here for more ways to support Gospel work with Mission India.

Header photo of Indian flag. (Photo courtesy of Still Pixels/Pexels)

Pakistan (MNN) — Pakistan holds the world’s second-largest Muslim population.

As the lowest social class in Pakistan, “Christians suffer through incredible cycles of poverty and exploitation,” AMG International’s Brian Dennett says. “Wealthy owners of brick kilns enslave the entire family for generations.”

Believers struggle to see beyond tomorrow when their lives are consumed by work.

“This is back-breaking, hot, miserable work. Children working in these kilns making bricks all day by hand have no access to schooling. This leaves them with very few options for a future and continues that cycle of enslavement,” Dennett says.

A gift of $600 will equip the school with a laptop, while a donation of $90 would provide a sewing machine.
(Photo, caption courtesy of AMG International)

AMG opened the Sablome House several years ago to help vulnerable women escape poverty and find hope in Christ. More about that here.

“This is a safe place to receive medical care [and] legal assistance. We do vocational training, and of course, we’re always sharing the Gospel,” Dennett says.

“In the last year, we worked with over 11,000 individuals; we’ve seen so many lives transformed through the hope we have in Jesus.”

Now, AMG wants to open a second ministry hub elsewhere in Pakistan to help marginalized Christians find meaningful employment and education. Here’s how you can help.

“Be praying for our brothers and sisters in Pakistan and that the Lord would provide the resources we need to open this new safe house,” Dennett requests.

Along with vocational training, AMG plans to include an elementary school as part of the ministry center. “We hope to help them buy the entire family out of slavery and be rescued from what would just continue going on generation after generation,” Dennett says.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz/Pexels.

China (MNN) — If you Google ‘China’ today, you’ll see headlines about uncertain economic growth, issues in the South China Sea, and closer ties with Russia and Iran.

Less known are the subtle shifts closing the door and removing the welcome mat to foreigners from the West. This change affects employment, investment, religion, and foreign policies.

Bibles For China’s Kurt Rovenstine just returned from a trip to China. “There is a growing resistance against forces or influences outside of China being present in China, affecting policy or culture or mindsets, and it was sensed on this trip.”

Although they did have good conversations with many of their partners, he says, “We did face some pushback against me as a foreigner, in places that China doesn’t want there to necessarily be foreigners; places like the church.”

Rovenstine says their itinerary changed because his presence drew too much scrutiny to their hosts.

When asked if China viewed Christianity as a ‘Western Religion,’ Rovenstine demurred. “The gospel is not Western; the gospel is universal”, but adds that the ministry is pivoting, at the request of their partners.

(Photo courtesy of Bibles for China)

The tension is more about the government viewing Western influence as ‘not Chinese’ and less about Christ. However, that friction extends now to more than the Underground Church.

Most notably, “For years, the registered church (or otherwise) has had partnerships and collaborations with people in the West that come in to do training, provide resources, etc., and (they) use them in a way that helps them to build their church. That’s just becoming more and more difficult for the Chinese believers.”

Because of the scrutiny the Church faces, and because of the growing anti-foreign sentiment within China, Bibles For China is changing its response, explains Rovenstine.

The most requested assistance is leadership training. “We’re helping to deliver study Bibles, leadership Bibles, and teaching Bibles that help the young men and women, or at least the untrained men and women seeking training, be prepared to go to their churches and present the Gospel.”

Providing the Word of God in a trustworthy, biblically accurate form is still the primary goal throughout the country and in the diaspora.

The Chinese Church also recognizes that “Leadership is important. Training the next generation is important, and the Church in China will grow when we equip pastors and laypeople to be strong, informed, well-educated, and well-prepared ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” The season is changing.

Rovenstine says the culture of China is beautiful and diverse. The body of Christ in China is equally unique.

Regardless of the political temperature, walking alongside believers as they prepare themselves for a time when the doors close and the locks change means we should “Pray for the Church, that they’ll be strong amid this tension and this desire to push back against foreigners. Pray for these young leaders as they prepare for ministry and even now are in ministry and the Church in China.”

Header image and story images courtesy of Bibles for China.